David Giuntoli on playing Nick Burkhardt and facing fantastic creatures

David Giuntoli, 36, who recently announced his engagement with his on- and off-screen girlfriend, Bitsie Tulloch (35), will be seen grappling with issues of a different kind in the third season of Grimm. The supernatural drama series sees him portraying the character Nick Burkhardt, a detective from Portland, whose life totally changes when he finds out that he is a descendent of a line of a�?Grimmsa�� who fight creatures we only expect to see in fairy tales. We find out what kind of wesen (creature) Burkhardt has to fight next and how his girlfriend, Juliette Silverton (Tulloch), reacts to his new reality.

Recently, the showa��s shifted from fairy tale to toying with the horror genre.
Initially, in the show, my character is passed a book that has all these fairy tales in it, and that was what our episodes were based on. But as the series grows, along with Nicka��s character, you discover that some of these other phenomena that are taking place in the world havena��t yet been added to the book. So now they are being noted down by Nick.What is the hardest thing that your character has to deal with in this series?
There are many creatures and they are getting more and more difficult to deal with. As for the strongest creature, Krampus (played by Derek Mears) is pretty wild. When I walked on to the set and saw the actor dressed as Santa with these horns, I actually had a visceral reaction to him. It was a disturbing thing.

What about the big change at the beginning of the season, where you become a zombie. Does that continue?
Oh, yes. Wea��re going to be playing on this one for a little while. Every time Nick gets harmed, hea��s left with this kind of useful side effect and wea��re going to definitely be seeing more of that.

Is there any one person that might emerge as the villain?
We have probably two or three contenders for the villain. I still consider the police captain (Sean Renard, played by Sasha Roiz) as a possible villain, and definitely lawyer Adalind (Schade, played by Claire Coffee). Then there is one more guy whoa��s showing up here soon, who is a strong contender.